Garuda’s Citilink to expand into international market, starting with Malaysia, Singapore & Australia

Garuda Indonesia budget subsidiary Citilink is planning more rapid domestic expansion in 2014 and the launch of international services, with an initial six routes. The expansion comes despite challenging market conditions in Indonesia and continued losses, including a net loss of USD48 million for 2013.

But Citilink is striving to reduce its costs and improve its profitability by increasing utilisation levels and average stage lengths. Longer domestic routes and the launch of international services will drive up utilisation rates on its fleet of A320s, which is expanding from 24 to 32 aircraft in 2014. International services will also provide an important new foreign currency revenue stream, cushioning the impact from the rapid depreciation of the Indonesian rupiah.

Citilink aims to launch services to four international destinations in 2014. The carrier has selected Johor Bahru in Malaysia as its first destination overseas, followed by Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and eventually Perth.